Debate Team Takes Off, New Faculty and New Format Lead to Success

The Cal Poly Debate Team is pleased to announce that Brooke Matson (Communication Studies) and Emilio Horner (Political Science) finished as semifinalists at the February 8 Sunset Cliffs Classic Forensics Tournament, hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. The tournament drew competitors from the Western United States, yet Cal Poly had the distinction of being the only California school to advance past the preliminary rounds — soundly outperforming UCLA, Pepperdine University, and Claremont McKenna College.

While debaters from the University of Denver, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Regis University prevented Horner and Maston from advancing to the final round at the Sunset Cliffs Classic, Horner and Matson, who are in their second and first year of debating for Cal Poly respectively, have emerged as a highly competitive team in the debate community.

First-year debaters Brandon Bartlett (English) and Euni Kim (Communication Studies) earned third place at the February 21 Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association’s Spring Championship Tournament, hosted by Moorpark College in Moorpark, Calif. The tournament included colleges and universities from Southern California and Arizona. During the final round, Bartlett and Kim debated about the merits of nuclear weapons.

The following month, the Debate Team had another successful weekend, going toe-to-toe with some of the most reputable debate programs in the state and the nation. The team attended the California Cup March 27-29, a three tournament sweepstakes open to all California teams hosted by Claremont McKenna College, Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and UCLA. Cal Poly debaters dominated the competition with Kylee Hawthorne (Political Science) and Bradley Patterson (Computer Engineering) bringing home the championship title from LMU, and Horner and Matson with the championship titles from Claremont McKenna and the California Cup. Both teams placed as finalists at UCLA. This marks the second year in a row that Cal Poly debaters won the LMU Intervarsity Tournament.

March 21-22, Cal Poly Debate Team hosted the U.S. Universities Western Region Championship, which welcomed students from Montana, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California. All schools in attendance gave very positive feedback on the event and the debate team intends to host it again next year.

The size of the Cal Poly Debate Team has increased significantly since switching to the World Debate format, as 16 students (eight teams total) currently compete for Cal Poly in intercollegiate debate competition. Additionally, we’re happy to announce that Assistant Director John Patrick was selected to serve as the parliamentarian for the U.S. Universities Debate Association, deputy chief adjudicator at the 2015 U.S. Universities Debate Championship, and as a member of the World Universities Debate Council’s equity committee.